Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Roody Salvator, operator of a food truck in Salt Lake City that features Haitian food, isn't one to wade into politics.
After last week's presidential debate, when former President Donald Trump referred to an unsubstantiated report of immigrants in Ohio eating pets, though, Salvator couldn't keep quiet. "Of course, I was not happy, like every Haitian here in the country or the world," he said.
While Trump didn't specifically mention Haitians, he mentioned Springfield, Ohio, the town at the center of the claims, saying that immigrants were taking over the city. Debate moderators pointed out that city officials have said the claims are not true.
Trump's comments during his Sept. 10 U.S. presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic hopeful, are behind a sharp dip in sales at his truck of late, Makaya Caters, Salvator suspects. Furthermore, the Republican contender's comments, as he sees it, run counter to the true character of the broad Haitian community. "It is a lie, I tell my friends," said Salvator, a naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in Haiti and now calls Utah home.
He already felt strongly, but after someone at the Downtown Farmers Market in Salt Lake City last Saturday approached his truck, asking if he served cat or dog, that "made it personal because the food truck, my business, is my livelihood." He decided he needed to speak out, made a public social media post on the matter and is talking to the media. Besides the Downtown Farmers Market, Salvator also sells from a location in the Rose Park area of Salt Lake City.
"Haitian food is full of rich flavors, love and tradition, and it's sad to see misinformation influencing how people perceive us," Salvator wrote on his business' Facebook page. "I encourage you to come by, try our food and support not just Makaya, but the many other diverse, immigrant-owned businesses that contribute so much to our city."
During last week's debate, Trump repeated what the Associated Press and other news outlets say are false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have been abducting and eating cats and dogs. Deporting immigrants here illegally has been a key vow of Trump's campaign for the presidency, and his comments about Haitians — in line with the harsh criticism he has directed at many in the immigrant community — have sparked a firestorm.
Haitians in Springfield are there legally under a federal humanitarian parole program, NBC News reported, citing local officials. Beyond that, Salvator says Trump's comments mischaracterize the Haitian community. The largest bloc in the United States from the Caribbean nation — the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere — lives in Florida, while Utah is home to a tiny population of Haitians. Haitians, "when we come here, we are law-abiding citizens," Salvator said.
Eating cats and dogs is not part of the Haitian culture, and he's not heard of it happening. "Rice and beans is the main thing that we eat, and a lot of people cannot afford meat, so the diet is mostly vegetarian," Salvator said. However, Haitians consume pork and chicken, featured on his food truck's menu along with dishes containing rice, beans and plantains.
The Utah community, by and large, has rallied in defense of Salvator, which he appreciates. Nevertheless, besides the unfair portrayal of Haitians that has come out of the presidential debate, Salvator thinks the turn of events casts the United States, Utah even, in a not-so-favorable light.
"What's going on is not the best of America, definitely is not the best of Utah," he said. Utah is a "great place and we should always represent the best of Utah, and what happened was definitely not the best of Utah. ... Racism and bigotry have no room in the state, in the country, in the world."
